Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

You know what, I take my previous lesson back. That was still an important lesson to me but it's not the most important.

The most important was a combination of what you've posted -- and a caveat. It's good to remember that we're not here to build robots. We're here to build students. The caveat is that it takes time, and not every student will get there at the same time, or even get there at all. And that's OK. Some change seems overnight. Others will take far longer. Our job is to be passionate. The rest isn't up to us.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

The hardest thing for me is learning that even if you put all your effort in you cant win everything

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I learned that I actually have the capacity to be a leader - I was offered the Lead queuing position at one of the district events and chose to take it. and then realized I was woefully unprepared for the part where I actually had to organize all of the Queuing at the event :v . The entire queuing team except for me were competely new to queuing too. Fortunately things ended up going smoothly, in no small part thanks to the rest of the team being very competent. It ended up being a lot of learning while doing, and a fun but difficult experience for me, something I look forward to doing again at some point. respect your volunteers kiddos, our jobs ain't easy ;)

also, it's really strange to me to be looked at as an authority figure by kids that could actually be as old as me :P

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I need to look at what I can realistically do and only do that.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

As a college mentor of my former team, one of the hardest things that I have had to learn to do is distance myself from my students and constantly remind myself that I am no longer on the team as a student and that I am now an "adult."

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

That overworking yourself is a huge problem, and some times you just need to back off and take a break. Also it's ok to relax and not worry about every little thing.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I would say that the world isn't fair, and if you want to get something done, you better go and get it done and not sit around and wait for it to happen. Also people could easily ruin your season, and it's best to get those people out.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

The hardest lesson I learned is to back up and look at the big picture more often. Too many times we'd re-learn stuff the hard way rather than bring in prior experience that happened to be located elsewhere on the team.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I would like to echo these two posts. As a student I always put in no less than 200 hours over the 6 week build season. While I truly got a lot out of that time, I learned very quickly that I cannot continue that same intense dedication while trying to balance both college classes and work.

Although I am still friends with many of the current Seniors on my team, it's a difficult transition to make from student to mentor. As Kristin pointed out, I need to constantly remind myself that I'm no longer a student myself.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

Don't bite off more than you can chew. After last year, we lost most of our CAD team. So, while retaining my roles with strategy and electrical, I took on the task of CADing much of the robot this year. It got done, but there were weeks where I would get ~20 hours of sleep, total. For me, FRC has always been a lot of fun, from start to finish. It has always made me happy, but it didn't this year, at least until I had a couple weeks away from it all, to sleep and to focus on other things. FIRST is inspiring. Sometimes, so inspiring that it sucks you in. The above story happened in parallel with having problems with my relationships, friends, and family. I was so buried in my work that I rarely talked to my friends or anyone else, and it took a toll on me and those around me. Much like many other people on CD, I love what I do. I love FRC, but, just like anyone else, I need people in my life in order to function. This is for any incoming FRC student- everyone says that academics comes first, but that's not the only thing. You come first. Know when you need to take a step back from it all, for your own health and happiness.

Side note: I also learned, don't cantilever things. Our robot was very saggy this year. If you ever saw us doing something to our shooter that looked like robot chiropractics, now you know why.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I can get really, really crabby when I'm running on fumes. I need to recognize it and keep my distance from the students if that happens.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

Nobody is right all the time, especially me. I get really heated defending stuff that's just plain wrong.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

The hardest thing I've learned is that there isn't one "right" path for your future; what you expected may not be what you need.

I'm a junior and I've been on my team since I entered high school. I've always had a passion for STEM, especially after my mom took me to a FRC regional when I was 9. It didn't come as a surprise to many when I ran for a leadership position on the team for next season. After all, I worked hard all season and had a lot of experience with both electronics and programming - to the extent that when there were issues in the pit, I was called instead of a department head.

Unfortunately, I lost the election to someone with less passion and less experience on the team. I wasn't completely surprised since our election system kinda boils down to a popularity contest, but it definitely hurt.

Still, I know that I'm a valued member of the team and I still have as much respect as I did before; I don't need a title to know that. Our team plans to expand a lot next year by implementing CAD, and since I'm not tied down by leadership duties, I'll have a lot more wiggle room helming that initiative. I'll still be able to leave my mark on the team, even without a fancy position.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

This year, I learned a lot about how other teams work, both in our area and around the world, and it brought me a new rush of perspective. As a result, I came to the uncomfortable realization that my team is just not doing as great of a job as I thought it was in many areas, from teaching students to designing robots. To be clear, I'm still excited by what we're doing and proud of our accomplishments. But I had an idea in my mind of how comparatively successful we are, and it turns out that idea is unrealistic.

I'm continually inspired by how awesome other teams are, and I'm really trying to use this perspective positively to motivate improvement, but it's still hard to accept the fact that we're not as good I thought we were.

Re: Hardest personal lesson learned?
 

I learned that dealing with people is a lot harder than dealing with robots, and that I'd rather deal with the robots.:]